We’ve run a thorough investigation of UE’s foremost smart speaker, the Ultimate Ears MegaBlast, and compared it to the company’s similar critical darling, the UE MegaBoom.

Both speakers are excellent portable outdoor options; frequently people want to know which has better bass, which is louder, which sounds better, and if the small price premium of the Alexa-powered MegaBlast is worth it.

We’ll go into the details below, but our overall view is that Ultimate Ears Megablast is a slightly better speaker, though not by much. We’re not super crazy about smart speaker tech in general at this point, and originally felt that it wasn’t worth the price premium, but since the Ultimate EarsMegablast's price has been coming down on Amazon as of summer 2018 by quite a bit, it may now be worth it to go for the smart speaker.

But as you’ll see there are still a few advantages to the UE Megaboom, and in our category of loud Bluetooth speakers, it’s still overall the best speaker for the money in our opinion.

Update History of This Article

This article was originally published on January 22, 2018. June 22, 2018: An overhaul of this article especially given how changed prices affect our thinking; the Megablast is becoming a better deal than it once was. July 27, 2018: Updated some information on smart features and fixed formatting. Oct. 1 2018: We’re working on an update to cover the Ultimate Ears Megaboom 3.

Side-by-Side Comparison: Ultimate Ears MegaBlast vs MegaBoom

• Very loud• Excellent evenness and clarity• Strong, solid bass• Good 360-degree delivery (place it in the middle of the party)• Great on its own, but even better with two paired together for a wider soundstage and lots more volume• Can connect 150+ units (with your friends' Megabooms for instance) for an enormous party

• Even louder• Slightly better detail• Bass slightly fuller and stronger• Good 360-degree delivery (place it in the middle of the party)• Cannot be paired with a second unit

• Pretty much full integration with Amazon Alexa; ask it for the weather, news, a recipe — anything that Alexa does• Smart features are somewhat fiddly and unreliable currently for some users• Smart features only work when the speaker is connected to WiFi

What Critics Say: The MegaBlast vs. the MegaBoom

As you might guess from the “Mega” in the names, these speakers are a bit heftier than the small to mid-sized portable Bluetooth speakers that we recommend (the ones that you can just toss in a handbag or picnic basic without a thought to extra weight). But as usual with speakers, there is a tradeoff between size/weight and sound performance — bigger speakers almost always sound better. The UE Megablast and Megaboom fall into our larger category and do sound better than the smaller speakers we also review.

They’re also both designed to take quite a bit of road abuse. Both have IP waterproof ratings of 7, meaning that than can be submerged underwater for up to 30 minutes with no ill effects. The MegaBlast also has a fully dustproof rating, meaning that it is designed to withstand grime, though the fully waterproof MegaBoom is unlikely to let in much dirt either. Customers on Amazon USA report that their MegaBooms and UEMegablast have withstood lots of abuse in terms of drops and rough handling, typically being toppled from a table to a hard floor without issue.

The Marshall Kilburn is a bit bigger and not waterproof, but overall a better-sounding speaker than these UE offerings.

But in the ears ofmostcritics, techsites, andconsumertestingorganizations, the UE Megaboom is a fantastic-sounding speaker — at or near the top of rankings for its size and price. As usual with Ultimate Ears, it delivers an even mix and offers gorgeous detail, warmth and solid, satisfying bass in a portable package. And it’s not just durable enough to go anywhere, it’s loud enough to be heard over crashing waves or a noisy, crowded patio party.

There is a minor complaint that the 360-degree performance isn’t as smooth with the MegaBoom and MegaBlast as with say the Bose Soundlink Revolve and Revolve+ (which we compare here) — that is, the UE speakers sound a bit better from the front than from the sides.

The UE Blast and MegaBlast feature Amazon’s Alexa which means that they are speakers you you can talk to and interrogate for information — as long as you’re connected to WiFi. But the Blast and MegaBlast lag much more than Amazon’s own Alexa products, don’t have a light to show that they’re listening, and tend to be more fiddly and prone to failure.

The UE Megaboom does not have full Amazon Alexa, but it does connect to Alexa as well as to Siri or to Google Now through your smartphone. This enables you to talk to your UE Megaboom speaker for speaker-related things, like skipping tracks, or playing a particular playlist on a supported service like Spotify. If you want to know about the weather/sports/news/settle a point of fact in an argument, you’ll have to instead talk to your smartphone, not your Megaboom speaker.

If you really want to talk to a great-sounding speaker, we think you’re generally better off getting an Amazon Echo Dot or Google Home Mini for their voice assistant functions, and connecting them to a MegaBoom and/or your home speaker system for actually listening to music.

A major downside of the Megablast is that if you buy two of them you cannot pair them together for more oomph, as you can with two Megabooms. The Megaboom is also lighter and a bit smaller, so there’s a convenience factor there too. And finally, the Megaboom has a speakerphone function, which the Megablast strangely lacks.

I appreciate your review and it was helpful when I recently purchased my set of Mega booms. Unfortunately there are a couple of important points
– INCORRECT: Stereo via two paired Mega-booms. CORRECT: In multi mega-boom mode the sound is MONO. I would never be happy with Mono.
the diffusers point left and right when the MBoom “+-” buttons face the listener. If you want stereo orient it this way

You’re correct, and we’ve just updated the article to reflect this unfortunate change. It appears that the latest version of the app from UE may have removed some functionality — you may want to run a search and try installing an old version of the app. 😉 Thanks for the heads up and we’re glad that you found the article helpful overall.

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